Show The Utah Statesman 1 Wednesday March 11 1901 A critical examination of Aggie basketball Commentary by The Statesman sports staff College basketball programs have been known to change direction a quickly as a candy wrapper caught in a whirlwind Utah State's i is a prime example of one such dramatic turnaround The Ags dropped from being the PCAA’s regular season champs last year to a team this year What happened to the Aggies? Who and what is to blame? The Aggies started the season in their familiar role — that of wiaaisf They won their first two games by wide margins against lesser opponents St Martin’s and Weber State Neat they dropped two tough games to BYU and Utah by a total of five points and then captured the InBank Classic in Rhode Island and appeared to be tuned for the PCAA season But something foreign to the Aggies happened during the conference season They lost and finished with the first losing record since the 1971-7t season The Ags finished with a record including 9 and mark in the a PCAA play It is difficult to pinpoint one single factor as the culprit for the Aggie downfall this season The problems are too diverse and numerous to be handled that simply One of the contributing factors is the Aggies never seemed to overcome last year's losses to graduation Losing forward Dean Hunger ssd his 20 points per game hurt the team badly But perhaps the depaitwe of point guard Rich McElrath was the most devastating blow Utah State lacked something this year that McElrath provided— a floor leader Sophomore Lance Washington McElrath's replacement and current point guard has untapped talent This year it appeared too much was asked of him too early in his career The Aggie offense was inconsistent for most of the year It scored s lot of points but lacked the ability to win the close game that sepsMes greatness from mediocrity e before getting tjqvenye is The Ags lost two close game to the first round of the PCAA tournament One night later they became almost looking exclusively to Jackson in a loss to Fresno State and During the year the Aggies seldom set picks for one another is s good relied more on the the Jackson of game aspect been player but how much more effective might he have for an often coming off a screen The Ags rarely went inside to 1 center Leo Cunningham Cunningham averaged only nine points a game and his high for the lesson was only 17 coPerhaps more important than Cunningham's potential offenuve ntribution is the dominating force he could be defensively By P“)rinf tough defense and being able to keep blocked shots in play Cunningham could be intimidating The Ags resembled an NBA team at times with their offensive pet- j mances They did not have good ball movement and those players without the ball did not move well The Aggies had trouble with patterned basketball teams all State and San Jose State gave USU problems with their methodical and defensive oriented styles of play ' One season usually will not make or break a program buttosWWj poor recruiting years will The Aggies desperately need a good J year to build a foundation for future teams Coach Rod Tuefler find some way to make up for this year’s losses of Wicldiffe K j and Jackson who combined for the majority of the Ags’ points fifth-pl- 2 toura-men- 12-1- 6 5-- UC-lrvin- one-on-o- one-on-o- 1 6-- 1 - yr-Fresn- USU radii Coast Cdi o4 T AsSETaE" tho'h Time appears to be running gymnastics team Ranked ninth “ h"" l°‘£ finishing fifth finirf rim: joining the loop number of frustration during the long naiTnX lTl? A- A tC 1 V c A’ T -' Toumament Boi College to win the meet coufdn t stay on the beam” Sure for nationals slowly dwindling ?°'’ honors and round crown as we36'45 Competing without senior Debbie Peterson thev lift OB ‘inc 171-7- 2 By scoring a WO He ® and floor ” said Corn°' ‘We 'k'f °n4He of the i routines' and all six floor routines” With BYU scoring a 14195 in monkey is on USU’ back to score weUbTrither :he'r meet at Nebraska or at regional m Albuquerque New Mexico TTie Aggies’ season best is a 14095 and they need to beat out BYU if they hopTto “ teason-endin- just mdividual 11 g get to nationals Com concedes that the high-flyin- g UJJJ will gain the region’s automatic bid yT j bw Aggies will battle it out for the I best bids will be determined on the teams with nationals “Last year we got to teason momentum that carried us through regional” said Corn ” We need to do this year” bes Cotl hoping that Peterson will be enough to compete in Lincoln Nebraska day “AO we is a good night on the says Corn I |